Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Obama's text messaging campaign

Sometime this week, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has promised to let supporters know via text message who he has selected as his running mate.

It’s a mutual exchange. Texters get the info. The Obama gets their contact information for the fall campaign.

What do you think about this? is it fair to get the info of all these texters like this? Or is it just another type of campaign advertising? Would you have any problem being in a candidate's text address book?

4 comments:

Sef
said...

I'd like to know who he picks first, but if I give him my number, he's just gonna keep texting and texting. I'm all like "bro, leave me alone. I can't be the VP" And he's all like "Come on dude" and I'm all like "No dude" and he's all like "Please baby baby please" and I'm all like "I don't roll on Shabbos" and he's all like "Whatever dude". Pfft, freakin' democrats!

I signed up for the veep-notification-text and I think it's a fair exchange. I was a little concerned about it because, as you say, the campaign gets your info and I thought I might get a bunch of unwanted text messages from them. It's been about a week and I've gotten only two: the first was an acknowledgment of my signing up, and the next one, a day or so later, was a request for my zip code so the campaign could send area-specific updates on any Obama events nearby. I sent my zip but, as I live in Way Rural, Texas, I haven't gotten any "events in the area" messages.

Is Way Rural the actual name of a city? If so, it seems cool to name a town after what it is .

I think the text exchange is kind of weird. I mean I am going to hear about the veep selection pretty much right away on every news channel out there. How much in advance would I know about it from a text?

"Would you have any problem being in a candidate's text address book?"

Yes. And that's why I'm not signing up for this. But I have no problem with him keeping the contact info of anyone who *does* sign up for this. The price of being connected to a politician is receiving that pol's spam.